This Stevens prototype disc brake equipped carbon fiber cyclocross bike was floating about the TRP booth to demonstrate their new Parabox cable-to-hydraulic disc brake converter.
The frame is very similar to their current Carbon Team cyclocross bikes, including a pretty close match to the paint scheme (though I like this one a bit better), and quite different from world champ Hanka Kupfernagel’s race bike they showed at Eurobike last year where reps said this would be a 2012 model at earliest.
From there, it gets radically different from current production models, from custom Easton wheels to hydraulic TRP brakes and some nasty white tires, this bike presents a mouthwatering taste of things to come. More after the break…
If we had to put money on it, the fork looks very much like Ritchey’s carbon rigid disc fork, and the complete Ritchey cockpit build corroborates this notion. Billed as a mountain bike product, the fork has gained a lot of popularity among small builders looking for a ‘cross worthy piece to throw some discs on – we saw a lot of them at NAHBS. The wide clearance and use of Easton’s mountain bike hubs suggests 135mm rear spacing.
We’re guessing Stevens’ line of thinking regarding the rear brake hose placement on the outside of the tube follows 3T’s logic with the Luteus fork in that anything between the frame and tire will only add to mud collection. Still, it’d be nice (except when you have to work on it) to see the hose run inside the frame or at least under the chainstay and come up on the inside just in front of the brake. It’s good to see the caliper placed inside the rear triangle, though.
The wheels were custom built for this project with Easton EC90SL 38mm deep tubular carbon rims mated to mountain bike hubs from their new EC90 XC wheels.
Seriously, how bad do you want those tires? (Know what they are? Chime in with a comment!)
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